On March 17, the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and its Commissioner for Kids’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for the conflict crimes of unlawful deportation and switch of Ukrainian kids from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
The crimes had been allegedly dedicated from at the least February 24, 2023 – the day Russia launched into an all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Russian officers have since dismissed the ICC indictment and closed ranks round their accused chief.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred to as the fees “outrageous and unacceptable”, in addition to “null and void” as a result of Russia – like China and america – doesn’t recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Former President Dmitry Medvedev described the intergovernmental physique as a “authorized non-entity”, as he warned that any try to arrest Putin “could be a declaration of conflict on the Russian Federation”.
However ICC President Piotr Hofmanski mentioned it’s “fully irrelevant” that Russia has not ratified the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC.
“The courtroom has jurisdiction over crimes dedicated within the territory of a state social gathering or a state which has accepted its jurisdiction,” he advised Al Jazeera. “Ukraine has accepted the ICC twice – in 2014 after which in 2015.”
So, as issues stand, the ICC’s 123 member states are obliged to detain and switch Putin to the organisation’s headquarters in The Hague, Switzerland ought to he land of their territory.
Because the second sitting head of state to be charged with conflict crimes, Putin’s prosecution could be a major achievement for worldwide justice.
The primary was former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who in March 2009 and July 2010 was charged with committing genocide, crimes towards humanity and conflict crimes in the course of the 2003-08 Darfur conflict.
Based on the United Nations, the bloody battle between the Sudanese authorities and insurgent forces killed at the least 300,000 individuals and displaced 2.5 million.
Whatever the veracity of the fees made towards al-Bashir, the landmark indictment amplified widespread disgruntlement in Africa over the ICC’s inordinate deal with investigating and prosecuting African leaders.
In 2010, the African Union (AU) urged its member states to “not cooperate with the ICC within the arrest and give up of President Bashir”, permitting international locations similar to Ethiopia, Kenya, Chad, Djibouti, Nigeria and South Africa, amongst others, to roll out the purple carpet for him.
Just a few international locations, together with Botswana and Malawi, expressed their willingness to arrest al-Bashir. South Africa famously refused to arrest him in 2015, whereas he was attending an AU summit in Johannesburg, saying he loved diplomatic immunity. Al-Bashir finally left the nation in unclear circumstances after a South African courtroom ordered his arrest. Later, the Southern African nation argued that it believed it had no duty below worldwide legislation or the Rome Statute to arrest a serving head of a non-state social gathering.
In the meantime, the ruling African Nationwide Congress (ANC) rightly bemoaned the truth that as a result of “international locations can select whether or not to be a signatory or not” of the ICC, it meant that “gross human violations dedicated by non-signatory international locations go unpunished”.
This was a legitimate and pertinent statement.
In 2020, as an illustration, the US denounced an ICC investigation into the actions of US troops in Afghanistan.
It labelled The Hague-based tribunal a “kangaroo courtroom” and imposed sanctions on former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and a senior official, Phakiso Mochochoko.
So the ANC had described the structural and operational deficiencies of the ICC in clear phrases and inadvertently made the case for across-the-board reforms. However it didn’t counsel an alternate courtroom for the hundreds of males, ladies and kids who had been raped and killed in state-orchestrated systemic violence in Darfur.
Almost eight years after he escaped arrest in Johannesburg, al-Bashir nonetheless has not stood trial for his alleged crimes in a Sudanese, African or worldwide courtroom.
Whereas African international locations had been proper to sentence the elemental shortcomings of the ICC, they need to not have obstructed the honest makes an attempt to safe justice for the individuals of Darfur.
Like different world establishments which might be hamstrung by the violent, lawless and regressive insurance policies and actions of world powers, the ICC should be reformed and decolonised.
Within the meantime, Africa’s leaders mustn’t repeat the errors they made concerning al-Bashir’s unenforced arrest.
From August 22 to 24, 2023, South Africa will host the fifteenth BRICS summit, with leaders from Brazil, India, China and Russia anticipated to attend.
Ought to the obstinate and more and more belligerent Putin attend the assembly, South Africa should respect its obligations to the ICC and arrest him, although Russia is a longstanding ANC ally.
The Soviet Union offered appreciable monetary, navy and political assist to South African and African actions in the course of the struggles for independence. However, that commendable help can not justify any South African or African try to cease Putin from assuming duty for his alleged conflict crimes.
Worldwide Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor has confirmed that South Africa has sought authorized recommendation on methods to deal with a go to from an alleged conflict felony.
The South African Communist Occasion (SACP), in the meantime, has characterised the ICC as “a supra-national establishment on the service of imperialist states”. And Julius Malema, commander-in-chief of the Financial Freedom Fighters (EFF) social gathering, has pledged to guard Putin if he lands in South Africa.
Unsurprisingly, the SACP and EFF condemned the ICC for its failure to cost and arrest former US President George W Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for orchestrating the lengthy and brutal Iraq conflict.
In 2003, the US, the UK and several other allies invaded Iraq below the false pretext that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction – an imperialist conflict effort that killed at the least 200,000 civilians and triggered regional instability.
Nonetheless, Malema and firm are preventing the incorrect battle and intentionally misconstruing the essence of worldwide humanitarian legal guidelines and world justice.
Bush and Blair ought to definitely face the complete may of the legislation for transgressing Iraq’s sovereignty on false grounds.
However Putin’s culpability for conflict crimes in Ukraine can’t be diminished, expunged or disputed over the US’s numerous navy transgressions all over the world.
South Africa should thus publicly reaffirm its dedication to assist worldwide justice earlier than the BRICS summit and state its willingness to arrest Putin. No African nation that’s dedicated to the institution of a good and equitable worldwide order can ignore his murderous and damaging conduct.
Suffice it to say, as many judicial programs in Africa are both politically compromised or consistently undermined by despotic leaders, Africa should abandon its redundant whataboutism and as a substitute try to make sure the ICC turns into a robust and unbiased multilateral establishment.
And in as a lot as they advocate for authorized redress for the a whole lot of hundreds of Iraqis killed in an unjust conflict, Africans must also search justice for the victims of conflict crimes within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, Myanmar and Ukraine.
Nobody – not even US President Joe Biden, China’s President Xi Jinping or Putin – should be allowed to contravene worldwide legislation and keep away from the requisite authorized penalties – particularly with the assist of Africa.
African states should view Putin’s indictment as the right alternative to abolish as soon as and for all of the longstanding impunity claimed and perpetrated by world powers.
The Russian chief should be ostracised and made to grasp that the world won’t assist the genocidal mayhem that he has orchestrated in Ukraine.
If he lands in South Africa or elsewhere in Africa, please arrest him.
Putin ought to face the courtroom.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.